


Small Steps

by shinealightonme



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Comment Fic, F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-04-30
Updated: 2009-04-30
Packaged: 2017-10-03 19:13:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinealightonme/pseuds/shinealightonme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Getting shot is the easy part; it's everything that comes next that's hard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Steps

When the doctors told the silent, worried knot of profilers in the waiting room that Derek was going to make it, the relief and joy was palpable; Derek himself was the only one not excited by the news. He knew getting shot was the easy part; it was everything that came after that was going to be hard.

He'd been injured on the job before, but never this badly, so the endless rounds of physical therapy that followed were both depressingly familiar and frustratingly new. The whole process dragged on, slow as his shuffling steps, and the gnawing feeling of impatience and helplessness left him in a perpetually bad mood. The nurses and doctors learned to tread carefully around him, and even his well-meaning guests were not spared his temper.

It was Emily who shook him out of his worst moods, mostly by surprise. She didn't seem bothered by his behavior, nor did she carry that air of quiet disapproval tempered with sympathy that Hotch and JJ had mastered. The first time he snapped at her, she just rolled her eyes. "If you're going to be an ass, I can leave."

She made good on her threat, but came back the next day, and the day after that; every day of his hospital stay, except a few that she spent out of town on a case. She started showing up at his physical therapy, where her cheering and challenges got him through every agonizing exercise. At the end of each session, she was flushed with success, her smile making Derek feel less foolish about finding victory in something he could have done easily, effortlessly, before the shooting.

The day he was discharged from the hospital, the team and his family all gathered together to see him home in one piece and to celebrate the next step toward his recovery. He found time to speak to the doctors privately, though, to reschedule his appointments. It had seemed important at the time that he do this on his own, but the next day found him thinking about the distance to the hospital, and how tired he would be after his session, and starting to have his doubts.

His thoughts interrupted by the sound of knocking on his front door. He groaned, thinking darkly that it had better not be some salesperson, but it turned out that this was definitely worth the trouble. "Emily?"

"Hey! You ready to go?" she grinned at him, not paying much attention to the shocked look on his face.

"Where?"

"Therapy," she said slowly, as though this were obvious. "Your appointment's in twenty minutes, remember?"

"Yeah, I know that. What I don't know is how you know that."

"Oh." She bit her bottom lip nervously. "I asked the nurses. They seemed to be under the impression that we were," she gestured at the space between them. "You know."

"No, what?" he asked innocently, wanting to make her say it out loud.

It didn't work; her eyes narrowed slightly, and her earlier uncertainty vanished. "They also weren't too inclined to do you favors like keeping secrets, after the way you acted."

"Fine, just keep throwing that back in my face," he said, inviting her in as he went to grab his things. "Seriously, though. Thanks."

"I don't mind, really," Emily insisted. "I just like being helpful." She added, as an afterthought, "And I have my own reasons to want you back to full strength."

"Is that so? Guess I'd better get well quick. It would be rude of me to keep you waiting too long."

Emily laughed. "Just get in the car."


End file.
